Communication products, such as portable radios, often use two or more electronic circuit boards to provide various communication functions. It is not uncommon for radios to have separate radio frequency (RF), controller, and keypad boards interconnected through pin/socket or flex type connectors. One of the most cost effective interconnect methods employs metallized contacts formed from sheet-metal and coupled to a lead frame. The metallized contacts are machine placed and reflowed onto a printed circuit board (PCB) with the lead frame still attached. Once the reflow process is completed the lead frame is broken away to provide an array of individual adjacent contacts to mate to corresponding conductive pads on an opposing PCB. One drawback to current day lead frame contacts is that when a radio is dropped, the adjacent contacts have the potential of shorting to each other. One way to address this problem is to include an insulator frame around each metallized contact. Typically, the insulator frame is formed of a heat resistive plastic that frames the sides of the individual metallized contacts. It would be advantageous to have a series of metallized contacts which could be mounted in close proximity to each other without the use of an insulator.
With current design trends focusing on smaller communication products, it follows that space and size constraints are continuously being challenged. It is critical that interfaces between circuit boards take up as little room as possible while still providing reliable interconnects.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved metallized contact that provides a reliable electrical interconnect which can be mounted in close proximity to similar contacts without the use of an insulator. A metallized contact that would lend itself to the lead frame format would also be a benefit in helping to keep manufacturing costs to a minimum.